Google’s got some new ways to highlight the news sources you care about most

In a world where it feels increasingly difficult to tell good, reliable information apart from AI fabrications, more and more of us are being intentional about where we go to find it, carefully curating our sources. Luckily for us, Google introduced Preferred Sources this past summer, giving you control over prioritizing content from the sites you trust most. And now, that’s getting even better.

Today Google announces a few upgrades for Search, including word of a big expansion for Preferred Sources, with the feature rolling out globally for English-language users over the next few days. The company shares that so far people who have taken advantage of Preferred Sources ended up clicking links to those sites twice as often.

We’re also seeing some changes to how Google handles new sources you’re subscribed to, highlighting that content in a new carousel. You’ll see this first in the Gemini app, before Google expands it to AI Mode and AI Overviews later down the road.

Speaking of AI Mode, look for some changes to how links are featured there, including short contextual introductions for why you might want to check out certain sources, and just more links appearing inline in general.

Google News is starting tests on a few other AI features, with audio briefings and text-based AI summaries of stories appearing from certain news sources Google’s partnered with.

Finally, Google’s got an update for us on Web Guide — we’ll forgive you if this one doesn’t immediately ring a bell. Launched five months ago as a Search Labs experiment, Web Guide was built to use Gemini to organize Search results in a more useful, structured way.

Going forward, you should start seeing Web Guide results in Search a lot more frequently for those of you who have opted in to get them. And Google says that the feature now runs twice as fast as it used to, connecting you with those optimized results in record time.